Removing chewing gum, grease, paint, candle wax, caulking, tar, food, and other such items from both hard and soft surfaces, such as carpets, tile, grout, concrete, upholstery and the like has been a long-standing problem. Such substances are typically sticky and easily get embedded in the upper portion, or the nap of the carpet. Fortunately, however, such substances usually penetrate neither the primary backing to which the nap is woven or stitched, nor the secondary backing that is typically glued to the lower surface of such primary backing against the floor.
Various devices have been used in the past to remove such substances from carpet. One such device designed primarily for removing gum from carpet is a so-called “bone scraper”, which is an elongated, flattened device about the size and shape of a Popsicle stick. The bone scraper is typically slightly shorter in length than its width, the width thereof being tapered at one end to a point. The device is typically used in conjunction with a gum-dissolving solvent that is worked into the gum by means of the pointed end of the scraper. This action allows the solvent to mix with the gum. The solvent prevents the gum from further sticking to itself, the carpet, and the scraper. Consequently, the gum may be picked from the carpet in pieces. This avoids the necessity of completely dissolving the gum. However, such bone scraper devices are only marginally effective in removing gum from carpets.
An appropriate gel-type solvent can be used on the gum, grease, paint, or wax, etc., rather than the typical non-thickened solvents that have a water-like consistency. Such gels do not soak through the nap into the primary backing, which could otherwise dissolve the glue laminating the primary to the secondary backing. For example, glues which are latex-based dissolve and the glue, thus, delaminate the carpet. One such gel-type solvent for use with gum is a citrus peel-based solvent with a thixotropic thickening agent.
Even in combination with an appropriate solvent, no scraping device of the prior art has proven effective in removing gum, wax, etc. from carpets.
One problem encountered when using scrapers of the prior art for removing gum or the like from a carpet is that while seemingly soft, carpets quickly wear tools dragged across the surface thereof and hard surfaces such as concrete and tile will immediately ruin the tools. This is particularly true of lightweight tools formed from plastic. Even metal tools formed from aluminum or other soft metals quickly wear. Making a tool from a hard, wear-resistant material adds excessive weight and cost to the tool. It would be desirable, therefore, to create a scraping tool from a low-cost, lightweight material and equip the tool with a replaceable blade portion formed from an appropriately hard material.
Another problem facing commercial carpet cleaners is that jets on the wand become blocked frequently while cleaning carpet. This necessitates the removal, cleaning and re-installation of the jets. Typically, a tool, for example, a wrench, must be used to remove and reinstall the jets. This requires the operator of the cleaning machine to carry yet another tool. It would, therefore, be desirable to combine a wrench function with another frequently used tool already being carried by the operator.